She got in the shower as I was leaving, lamenting that her parents were going to be back the next day.
“Knowing my mom, she’ll probably smell that I had boys in the house,” she said, with her arms around my neck after she’d kissed me goodbye. “Maybe it’ll make her finally stop harassing me about getting a boyfriend.”
Boyfriend.I wondered what it would take for her to call one of us by that word, if it was even a possibility or if I was truly a fool.
I pulled out my phone on the way downstairs and saw a text from Jason, asking if I could leave Jess’s front door unlocked when I left.
I have some free time today so I’m going to do what I can about that security system,he wrote.Her parents will probably be pissed if they come back and it’s still broken.
I left the door unlocked as he’d asked. It was already getting warm and sticky outside, but for once, I didn’t mind. I felt good, better than I had in a long time. I started up the Mustang and sat for a moment while she warmed up, smiling at nothing as I hummed a tune.
Damn it. What the hell had she done to me?
I pulled out of her neighborhood with the windows down, playing Siouxsie and the Banshees loud as I headed toward home. Maybe I’d take the day off and insist Lucas do too. We’d been working too damn hard these past few weeks.
Then, just a little ahead of me on the side of the road, I spotted an old red Chevrolet truck.
My eyes locked on it as I passed. The windows were down; the cab was empty — I passed far too quickly and jerked my head back, swerving on the road as I tried to get a better look.
Fucking hell, that wasn’t…that couldn’t be…
I wrenched the wheel around; the tires squealing as I flipped a U-turn. I turned down the music as I pulled up behind the truck, staring at the license plate with a sickening feeling in my gut.
I recognized the plate. The dent in the rusted back bumper. The crack in the glass on the back windshield.
I stepped out of the car but left the engine running. My hands were suddenly cold, but sweat was dripping down my back. Every step felt slow and robotic as I walked toward the Chevy’s driver side door. There was a roaring in my ears like a distant ocean, pulsing with the beat of my heart as I peered through the open window into the cab.
Ripped seats, ash all over the dash and a distinct odor of menthol cigarettes. I swallowed down my rising nausea as Irealized the door was only partially closed, so I eased it open. The keys were gone, but there were black plastic bags on the passenger seat and in the bed of the truck, clothing and trash littering the floor.
And there, barely visible beneath the front seat, was a shotgun with the initials R.R. carved into the wooden stock.
Reagan Reed. My father was back.
I’d smoked through the last of my pack of cigarettes by the time Jason pulled up in front of Jess’s house. I’d parked a little way down the road, so she wouldn’t see me out the windows and come ask what I was doing.
Jason had already spotted me as he stepped out of the Z, walking over to tap on my window curiously.
“What’s up?” he said as I cranked the glass down. “I thought you were going back home. Did you decide to go for round two?”
His jovial smile faded as I said, “My dad is back in town. I saw his fucking truck.”
He didn’t look nearly as surprised as he should have. He swore softly, awkwardly running his fingers through his hair as he said, “Where’d you see him?”
“The Chevy was parked along Route 15,” I said, automatically reaching for my cigarette pack. I scoffed in disgust as I remembered it was empty, crumpling the pack in my hand before I threw it to the floor. “He wasn’t there, and his keys were gone too. But all his stuff was in there. What the hell are you looking at me like that for?”
“Vincent was supposed to tell you,” he said. “But he thought you might…”
“He thought I mightwhat?” I snapped without meaning to, and Jason gripped my open window, leaning down as he looked at me.
“He wasn’t trying to stress you out, okay?” he said. “He saw your dad when he and Jess went to Satin—”
“My father saw Vincent with Jess?”
I wrenched open my door and Jason stepped back. I was trying the best I could to keep myself calm, but fucking hell, Vince had known about this fordaysand hadn’t said anything? Jason tried to start again, but I was speaking too fast as I paced.
“So the man who threatened to kill me, who swore he’d put me six feet under for takingeverythingfrom him, saw Vincent with Jess in public, and Vince decided to tell me fucking nothing?” I lowered my voice, anxiety gripping me so tight it was difficult to breathe. “Did he think Reagan wouldn’t recognize him? After Vince came with me to every funeral arrangement, when he was right there in court with me? He knows exactly who Vincent is!”
My dad had challenged Mom’s will before she was even in the ground. He hadn’t bothered to come to the funeral or help with the planning. No, that was all me. Vincent had come to every awkward meeting, whether it was with the funeral director or the probate litigation attorney. He was the calm, optimistic presence I’d needed when I was working through so much turmoil.